The first block, which ran from 7:15. until almost 9:00 a.m.,
was highly engaged, the second block not so much. Given everything we’ve seen lately
about how teenagers need more sleep, these results seem counterintuitive. If any class should be disengaged, it’s the
one that is still asleep.

As a closure activity, their teacher asked for feedback on
their discussion, and several students mentioned how awkward the whole ritual
felt. When the teacher asked them to dig
deeper into the cause of this awkwardness, one young lady claimed, “We don’t
know each other!”

The teacher countered that they had been together for eight
weeks, the implication being that they should know each other by now, and the
student responded, “Just because we’re in class together doesn’t mean we talk
to each other!”

I was immediately transported back to May 1996, the spring
of my first year of teaching. We were
discussing Of Mice & Men, and one
student made an excellent point to which another student said, “I agree with
the boy by the window…”

I was horrified.

“The boy by the window?!
That’s Justin! You’ve been in
class together for eight months! How do
you not know his name?”

The problem is real and, while we didn't create it, it is in our best interests to solve it.

The Difference
Between Regular and Honors

I’ve heard more than a few teachers claim, “I could probably
do that with my honors kids, but my regular kids just can’t handle it.” The implicit assumption here is that honors
students, by virtue of their superior intellects or work ethics, are more fitted to academic
discourse than their less academically gifted peers.

I’d like to propose an alternative explanation. Honors students take honors classes, which
are fewer in number than the—call it academic, call it regular, call it what you will—middle track. As a result, honors students tend to be in
many more classes with the same people over the course of several years. They may not like all of their peers, but
they know what to expect from them.

By contrast, average students may have a completely new set
of peers every period of every day every year, giving them limited opportunity to build relationships. Consequently, they lack the trust in each
other that allows them to share ideas.

In addition, there are very real social barriers that teachers
ignore at their own peril. As they get older, student bodies separate according
to a series of unwritten and unforgiving laws that dictate where they can and
cannot eat lunch, who they can date, whose parties they can be invited to, what
extracurricular groups they can join, and how
enthusiastically they are allowed to contribute in class.

Unless a teacher has only students from a single social
caste in his classroom, he will have to spend some time breaking down the
barriers between students before they will collaborate successfully.

Building Classroom
Relationships

For several years, I taught a class for at-risk
seniors. One year, two young men--one
was a very Caucasian athlete, the other a very Latino gang member—nearly came
to blows a few times during class, convinced that they were mortal
enemies. I initiated a regimen of team building
and class building exercises that would enable them to learn a little low-risk
information about each other and discover some common ground. Eventually, they stumbled upon the fact that
they both liked girls and getting high. I’ll
grant you, I may have created problems for authority figures elsewhere in the
community, but, as far as my class concerned, those two were no longer the
source of any behavioral issues (and promised not to get high before or during
my class).

If you want students who don’t know each other to work
collaboratively, you must first help them break down those social
barricades. Assign them an activity that
requires them to find out something about each other. For example, while you take attendance, ask
each student in a small group to speak for 30 seconds on any of the following
topics:

What did you do last weekend/what are your plans
for this weekend?

What’s the coolest thing you’ve ever done?

If you had $1,000,000 but only one day to spend
it, what would you do?

If you could talk to one of your relatives who
is no longer here, who would it be and what would you talk about?

Realize that not all the material in these resources is necessarily
safe for school, so use some judgment.

Other Activities

A Google search using the generic term “class building
activities” yielded half a billion hits; there is no shortage of material out
there. I prefer tasks that enable the sharing
of personal information over those that merely ask students to complete a
physical challenge. Any activity that
requires a significant amount of physical contact or closeness should be viewed
with extreme skepticism, but use your own comfort level as a guide. If you wouldn’t want to participate in the
activity, don’t foist it onto your students.

Bottom Line

Do some type of team building or class building activity
three times a week—more if your students need it—and you will be amazed at the
change that occurs in their willingness to participate and to support each
other. Students may resist initially, so
I recommend that you participate in these activities and share information
about yourself. You are part of the
team, and they need to know they can trust you as much as they trust each
other.